*************** UPDATE **********************
Thanks guys for all your advice, it was a great trip, the MGM pool was awesome, lots of hot girls running around. The poker games were incredibly soft. For a 70 dollar flight and 60 bucks a person for the hotel room for the trip, I'm very happy. Won 900 playing 1-3NL at the Excalibur and 1-2NL at the MGM grand and lost 90 bucks playing blackjack. Drank like 500 bucks in free Crown and Cokes.
Saturday: We got in at 3 and we immediately checked into the MGM grand, and I decided to do the Entourage thing, ran over to the Roullette table, put 10 bucks on red, and red hit. It was going to be a good trip.
We went over to the Excalibur and I won 85 bucks playing blackjack...was on top of my game counting cards. We then went over to the poker table and I stacked a guy with a set of 3's when he had JJ on a T93 board. He raised preflop, got 4 callers, I called for set value, hit it, and he bet his stack on the flop.
I almost lost my stack when I had A6, the board was 2354 with 2 diamonds and I pushed a guy all in. He turned over Q6d and he was freerolling for my stack...luckily he didn't hit. Ended up 250 on this session.
We had dinner kind of late at Batista's Hole in the Wall...it's always cool to go to this place in Vegas cause it's bottomless wine and we stop by the Bellagio fountains along the way. Drank a ridiculous amount of wine and didn't get ready to go out until 12:30. Decided to just go to studio where the music wasn't that great, but there were lots of hot chicks. Danced with a bunch of them and got a # but forgot to call because I was 1. drunkand 2 distracted by poker.
Got out of Studio at 4AM and headed to the Excalibur to play more poker. Sat down with one of the most horrible players I've ever seen in my life, calling all ins with 44, A6, A8, shoving top pair on the flop. Loose preflop, aggressive and horrible post flop. I sat and waited and waited and waited for a big hand. I finally woke up with AA. UTG raises to 15, I reraise to 40, MP calls, the horrible guy calls on the button, UTG shoves for 100 more, I shove for 250 more, MP folds, horrible guy calls, my AA holds up and I take down a 750 dollar pot. I immediately get up, cash out, apologize for the hit and run, and go back to the hotel to sleep trying not to get mugged. Ended up about 450 this session after tips and a billion drinks.
On the way out I got propositioned by a pretty hot hooker. She stopped me and asked if I wanted to party. I mentioned that I'd love to party but only if I didn't have to pay to party because 1. I was broke and 2. I'd been up all night. I made some jokes like yeah, you're probably not one of those types of girls, we BS a little and she's like you're right I am that type of girl, we laugh about it a little, I tell her good luck finding someone to party with, point her to a guy at the poker table with a big stack and go home and sleep.
Sunday: Slept till 2, got up, played some blackjack, went to the pool for a little bit, stopped at the MGM poker room to play a quick session while my friends took naps. Nothing too eventful, solid, aggressive poker in position and ended up about 130 bucks.
Decided to go try a Vegas tradition, the Champion Burrito challenge at this Mexican restaurant at the Luxor. The goal is to drink a yard margarita and eat this giant double tortilla burrito and you get a tshirt for doing it. 4 of us guys tried to do it, 2 finished (including me), and we all felt horrible afterwards. Went home, took a nap, got up at 1:30, headed over to the Excalibur for more 1-3 action.
This session was really fun but also kind of sucked because I sould have been up 380 on the session and ended up only up 65. I also felt horrible because I had just consumed 2 lbs of burritto, beans, rice and a yard margarita.
I spent the first half of the session playing solid, aggressive poker waiting for a big hand. Took down a few pots with aggression, ran my stack up to 300. Here are some notable hands:
1. I wake up with AA, raise to 12, get 2 callers. I bet 30 into a 40 dollar pot on the flop of KQ8 and get 1 caller. The turn is a blank and I bet 80 into a 100 dollar pot on the turn and he folds.
At this point a pretty entertaining group from Bismarck had sat down. One guy was in 80% of hands, loose as hell preflop, and very solid post flop. His goal was to take money from his buddy who he claimed was a doctor with too much money. So he'd call all his buddy's raises, he offered a 50 dollar bounty on anyone to stack him, etc. He'd play hands blind preflop, make all sorts of jokes about playing any 2 cards, winning a pot by just betting. He'd never raise preflop, but call any raise. When a flop came all high cards he'd joke those cards are too high for my hand. Or he'd ask for cards 6 and lower. Anyways, I had good reads on him, he'd always minraise with big hands and he'd make medium sized bets with middle pair (no one was reraising him). I changed my preflop raise size to 20 from 12 to make his preflop mistakes bigger. He pretty much respected my game and we stayed away from each other...the rest of the table didn't adjust and he ended up stacking 3 or 4 players and had 1000 on the table at one point. At this point, he had loosened the table up considerably.
2. 8 limpers and I'm in the BB with 45o. Flop comes 678. I check, MP bets 20 bucks into a 24 dollar pot, I reraise him all in to 95, trying to look like I'm trying to buy it, but also thinking he's pot committed if he hit 2 pair and he'd call with a draw. He thinks and calls..flips over 78 and he leaves.
3. A pretty aggressive South African dude sits down with a huge stack...about 800 bucks. I'm slightly worried and am pretty much avoiding him until this hand. He raises in MP to 12, I reraise him to 40 and he calls. I have AsKs. Flop comes A,4,2. He bets 40 into an 85 dollar pot and I call because 1. I don't want to inflate the pot, 2. raising allows him to fold all hands I beat, and 3. I don't want him to checkraise me off the hand by repping a straight or an unlikely set. Turn comes a blank 8 he bets 60 into a 165 dollar pot, I just call putting him on a range of AQ, AJ, AA, or a set. Turn comes a K, and he checks, I bet 40 for value. He says that my hand was shaking and he folds. My hand always shakes when I bet because I'm slightly nervous in live games.
At this point I'm at like 580 and I'm up 380 for the session and I'm pretty tempted to just leave because I'm up a lot, I don't feel well, and I'm getting tired. I decide to play on because there's 2 really horrible players at the table. One guy overbets the pot and didn't know he could reraise preflop. I had good reads on him and knew he'd overbet the pot with a medium strength hand or a draw, but not a big made hand. Another guy called off a big part of his stack with an A high flop with A7. He also called a raise, reraise all in with a gutshot and hit. He's also fairly aggressive.
4. I play a hand with guy #2 who is a calling station. I'm in the SB with 6c7c and I complete, he checks. Flop comes 557 and I bet 10 into a 6 dollar pot, he calls. Turn is another 5 and I bet 20 dollars into a 26 dollar pot and he calls and makes a comment like, do you have a 5? At this point he makes a speech so I think he may be strong, but I have his range as any A, any K, low pocket pairs 22,33,44, any 5, any draw 89, 68, etc. He would have raised me preflop with a bigger pocket pair. I decide to fire a value bet on the river for 30 bucks and he calls with JJ. I don't think I misplayed this hand so I'm not too upset with how I played it.
5. I play a hand with guy #1. I raise to 15 in early position with TT, no diamonds and guy #1 calls. Flop is 3 diamonds K, 8, 4 and he immediately bets 50 into a 15 dollar pot. I think for a little and think he has to be on a draw so I decide to raise it to 120. I know he thinks it's a big raise because he raises to 50, so 2 and a half times his raise looks strong. I think he has to lay down most of his range. He bets 15 on the turn and I have to call a bet that small. The river comes an A and he shoves. I fold. I donked 155 bucks in this hand and lost a 300 dollar pot...not so happy about this hand. This was probably the only hand all weekend I wasn't happy with how i played. Afterwards, I realized there was a better time and a better situation to try this type of move. Also, I had almost no fold equity against htis guy as he was horrible and wouldn't get what I was representing and there was no way he was laying down the flush draw.
Anyways, I thought about staying to take this guys money but I was getting tired, it was like 6 in the morning, and I was a little tilted and didn't think I was playing optimally.
Monday was a lot of hanging out by the pool, played some single deck blackjack and kept running into dealer blackjacks when the count was high..dropped like 150 bucks playing 10 dollar blackjack, got like 10 free crown and cokes out of it though. We had dinner at a Sushi restaurant at the MGM which was excellent. Tried to go to Ghostbar but it was closed for a private event and ended up checking out the World Series of Poker. Saw Howard Lederer, Greg Raymer, Jesus Ferguson, Gus Hansen, Annie Duke and my favorite, Johnny Chan, who was standing up. he looked over and I took a picture, and he looked at the camera and waited until I had finished taking it and then sat down. Pretty cool.
Overall a pretty sweet trip...I'm trying to go back at the end of August.